Link Exchange Scams

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Link Exchange Scams

Do you ever exchange links with other Web sites? I am sure most of you that do this, look to see if your links are actually on the pages that you exchanged with. In addition, I assume that you check to make sure that the links do not go through redirects.

Links, as most the readers here know, are incredibly valuable. The anchor text of your links can make or break your page’s search ranking. There are dozens of reasons why a link exchange would be turned down. (1) Obvious, they do not link to your page. (2) The link goes through a redirect and does not pass PageRank or any value whatsoever. (3) There are way too many links on that page, do the value of all links are diluted. (4) They hide links with white text on white background (dangerous). The list goes on.

A thread at SEO Chat discusses this and wether or not it is the responsibility of the link exchange scammee to notify the others. There is a list of links on a page, all of those links were exchanges. The members plan is to contact each link owner and notify them that the links from this scammer are not passing any value. Is this member being a Good Samaritan?

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Columnist Barry Schwartz is the Editor of Editor of Search Engine Roundtable and President of RustyBrick, Inc., a Web services firm specializing in customized online technology that helps companies decrease costs and increase sales.